In a last-ditch effort
to whip votes before the April 1 by-election, members of a Shan
political party met with residents in Kengtung Township on March 27 and 28.

Shan Nationalities
League for Democracy (SNLD) chair Khun Htun Oo urged voters to elect the candidate who they feel
would most clearly work in the public’s interest. He was joined at the event by
Nang Kham Aye, the SNLD representative for Namtu Township’s Pyithu Hluttaw
seat, and Loong Sai Long, the SNLD candidate for Kyaingtong/Kengtung’s consistency 2.

“At the campaign
event, they said that the Tiger Head [SNLD] party hopes to win the confidence
of the people. The vote all depends on the desires of the people to choose who
they want to represent them,” said Sai Tun Yee, a local resident who attended
the campaign rally.

Shan State will be a
hotly contested battleground this weekend. In 2015, it was an outlier to the
National League for Democracy’s (NLD) sweep, serving instead to propel the Shan
Nationalities League for Democracy to its position as the country’s fourth
largest party in the national parliament. The state is also a last bastion for
the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which took the bulwark of
seats in the Shan State legislature in 2015.

Two townships in Shan
State – Kyethi and Mong Hsu – will have their first poll in seven
years this by-election, after the vote was previously cancelled due to
security concerns. A total of six seats in those areas are up for grabs, two in
Pyithu Hluttaw and four in the Shan State Hluttaw.

In Kengtung, the only
other seat free in Shan State, six parties are vying for a chance to join the
state parliament. The SNLD is joined by competition from the NLD, the USDP,
the Shan National Democratic Party (SNDP), the Lahu National Development
Party and the Akha National Development Party (ANDP).